The Snyder Cut and Ayer Cut are so last month. I’m all about the Tarantino Cut now.
In an interview with Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast, actress Margot Robbie was asked about the fabled cut of Suicide Squad that “scared the sh*t out of the executives.” She jokingly responded, “For personal reasons, I’d love to watch the five-hour cut of every movie I’ve ever done,” before adding, “There’s a 20-hour cut of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that would… There’s so much more that you didn’t get to see, that we shot that was amazing, and for a million reasons obviously, can’t make the cut.”
The theatrical version of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was 161 minutes long (a re-release added 10 minutes), but a four-hour cut exists and it might be released on Netflix. The extra 80 minutes is mostly Brad Pitt lifting his shirt off in extremely slow motion.
Robbie will soon appear in The Suicide Squad, out August 6, followed by roles in David O. Russell’s next film (along with Christian Bale, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant, and Zoe Saldana) and Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, where she’ll reunite with Pitt. Maybe they can text Quentin Tarantino about the four-hour cut between scenes.
Every day, more and more rappers are hopping on the viral “Beat Box” challenge. It’s essentially a way for artists to flex their lyricism while offering their own interpretation of SpotemGottem’s “Beat Box” beat. So far, rappers like Mulatto, DaBaby, Polo G, and Lil Yachty have hopped on the trend. Now, NLE Choppa offers up his own version of the viral challenge while also celebrating his recent release from prison with “Beat Box (First Day Out).”
Over SpotemGottem’s recognizable beat, Choppa asserts his dominance with each boastful lyric. Choppa’s “Beat Box (First Day Out)” arrives alongside a fast-paced video, the filming process of which apparently saw some hiccups. It closes out with a clip of the rapper and his crew fleeing a car that they had crashed into the side of the road while on camera. Even still, the video is a way for the rapper to celebrate that he’s currently out of jail on bail.
Earlier this week and ahead of the “Beat Box” filming, the 18-year-old was arrested in Florida on suspicion of burglary, carrying a concealed firearm, and possession of drugs including Xanax and weed. He was taken into Broward County Sherrif’s Office in Fort Lauderdale and his bail was set at $4,500, which he was able to pay shortly after his arrest.
Choppa is looking to make the most of his legal situation, however. Along with dropping “Beat Box (First Day Out)” as an anthem for his freedom, the rapper announced a line of merch that is printed with his most recent mug shot.
The only thing that Donald Trump likes more than himself is McDonald’s. He asked White House chefs to recreate a Quarter Pounder; served a buffet of fast food items, including greasy “hamberders” from McD’s, to the Clemson Tigers football team after they won the national championship; and his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski claimed a typical dinner for the former-president consisted of “two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, and a small chocolate shake – a total of 2,430 calories.” But while Trump may love to recline in bed with a McDonald’s cheeseburger (who doesn’t), he doesn’t love paying people back for McDonald’s.
Kevin McKay, who worked as a bodyguard for Trump for five years, told the Daily Mail that the former-president owes him $130 for a McDonald’s order that he paid for back in 2008. “He told me he would pay me back, but he never did,” he said. “For much of the time I was working for him, I kept thinking he would say, ‘Kevin, here’s that money I owe you,’ but it didn’t happen. I thought he was an OK guy when I first started working for him, but I guess that as we have all come to see, he is not a man of his word.”
I bet Trump never chipped in for gas money, either.
Kevin reveals he bought fast food for Trump in 2008 when the future President was heading to Aberdeen airport in northeast Scotland after visiting his beloved Trump International golf course. The former bodyguard said: ‘We were driving from Mr. Trump’s estate and just as we got to the Bridge of Don, he asked to stop at McDonald’s so he could buy food for the flight back to New York. We were in a convoy of six blacked out Range Rovers with about 15 men in suits inside, so there must have been some shocked expressions as we pulled up in the carpark.’
Trump didn’t have any local currency, so “he asked me if I could front him the cash,” McKay revealed. “I said, ‘Sure’ and took everyone’s order – about 20 cheeseburgers and fries with around 10 or 15 Coca Colas. I think Mr. Trump ordered two cheeseburgers with fries and a Diet Coke – that was his usual order and he always wanted McDonald’s to take with him on the private jet. It cost me about £95 in total and Mr. Trump told me, ‘You’ll get it back.’ … I never heard about it again after that. I should have asked him for the money, but I brushed it under the carpet.” Thirteen years later, he’s still waiting.
I’m beginning to think this Trump guy isn’t a man of his word.
Wheel of Fortune fans have finally had it with a controversial rule that just cost another contestant a win on Wednesday’s episode. As Wheel Watchers know, the show is oddly strict about contestants adding the word “and” while solving a puzzle and will rule their answer incorrect if they make the common blunder. That’s exactly what happened to contestant David Pederson while solving the episode’s crossword puzzle for the day. Via Entertainment Weekly:
“Don’t add anything,” host Pat Sajak warned Pederson, who then answered, “Sole, flounder, cod, and catfish,” which Sajak ruled incorrect. Another contestant then answered correctly by listing the same fish but omitting “and.”
While this mistake has happened before, it appears to be the final straw for some Wheel of Fortune fans who took to social media to demand the show ditch the rule once and for all.
There’s nothing colder than @WheelofFortune dinging folks for adding the “and” when solving crossword puzzles
I generally agree with strict adherence to rules, which helps ensure consistent treatment among contestants, but “and” should be allowed on crossword puzzles. #WheelOfFortune
Another contestant losing out on money because they said AND on the crossword puzzle. @WheelofFortune just change the dumbest rule ever and allow this.
@WheelofFortune people are right: the “no and” rule is haphazardly dumb and totally arbitrary, instituted and enforced for no obvious reason, adding nothing of value to the game or the show
As of this writing, the show has not responded to the “and rule” controversy, but judging by the number of people who are arguing that it should stay, there probably will be very little movement on the topic. It’s also not the only problem the show is currently dealing with. Host Pat Sajak has been involved in a growing number of awkward incidents in recent weeks. The longtime host seemingly made a very suggestive remark to a contestant and has been under fire after reportedly mocking a contestant’s speech impediment in late February. Sajak also called a contestant “ungrateful” back in November, but in that case, he apologized for yelling at the end of the show.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
Do you like to watch monsters pummel the ever-living hell out of each other? (Of course you do! Who doesn’t?!) Well, has HBO Max got a movie for you! (Though we should note that you can also see it in theaters.) This seemingly non-stop parade of cinematic excess is a long way from Godzilla’s original legacy as an anti-nuclear parable, but it’s entertaining as hell, so we forgive everything. Watch it on HBO Max.
After a hardcore fan campaign and plenty of backlash (of both the content-related and behind-the-scenes varieties), the fabled “Snyder Cut” is no longer fabled but a real thing. It’s also a 4-hour thing, so it’s quite a mouthful to chew, but it’s undeniably a vast improvement over the theatrical version. Snyder’s version isn’t technically canon, but it’s still the realization of a fever dream and one that will satisfy those who longed for actual character depth amid all the CGI mayhem. Watch it on HBO Max.
Idris Elba on a horse and wearing a cowboy hat? Sure, sign us up. Director Ricky Staub uses actual members of Philadelphia’s Fletcher Street Riding Club in the film, and the film also serves as a pretty good history lesson explaining why there are often Black cowboys on horses in the middle of large cities. Watch it on Netflix.
If you enjoy documentaries that feel like horror movies that will give you nightmares when you sleep, this one is right up your alley. Director Hannah Olson combed through hundreds of hours of video footage taken by passengers and crew members aboard a cruise ship in the midst of a COVID outbreak to transport audiences back to the early days of the pandemic. Watch it on HBO Max.
Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish in a wild road trip prank comedy where they pull strangers into nutso stunts as they make their way to New York. You could do a whole lot worse in on a Saturday night. Watch it on Netflix.
Do you want to make Alan Kim happy? You should, as he’s the world’s most adorable child. All you have to do is watch Minari. Not only will you get to enjoy a very good movie about a Korean-American family, including patriarch Steven Yeun, living in small-town Arkansas in the 1980s, you will also bring a smile to make this gosh-darn cute kid’s face. Watch it on VOD.
In his review of the film last year, our Mike Ryan wrote, “there’s a scene in Nomaldland so beautiful I gasped as it whisked my brain to some of Terrence Malick’s early work.” That pretty much sums it up well — Nomadland is one of the most beautiful and touching movies we’ve seen in a while. Watch it on Hulu.
Wolfwalkers was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. It probably will not win because it’s going against Soul and Onward, but it should. The third and final installment in Tomm Moore’s majestic “Irish Folklore Trilogy,” after The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, is gorgeous and profound and lyrical. Pixar can always win another Oscar next year. Watch it on Apple TV.
Actress Soleil Moon Frye mines her vast archive of diaries and videos, creating a star-studded scrapbook of her bittersweet ’90s teen experience that is as affecting as it is surprisingly relevant no matter when you came of age. Watch it on Hulu.
Riz Ahmed is terrific in The Sound of Metal and is a, mark it down, done deal for a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Ahmed plays Ruben Stone, a drummer in a heavy metal band who is losing his hearing at a dramatic speed. As a former addict, he worries about relapsing and checks himself into a shelter for deaf addicts. It’s here he learns to sign and starts to accept himself in new ways. Things get complicated after Ruben has surgery to install implants that, sort of, restore some of his hearing, but now he’s caught between two worlds and has to decide how he wants to live. Ahmed gives a reserved performance (at least for a character who plays in a heavy metal band) as he copes with the anguish of who he was, who he is now, and who he’s going to be. Watch it on Amazon Prime.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
After WandaVision proved that Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige could still bring their A+ game, even on the small screen, we’re getting the (begrudging) buddy comedy for Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes that was forecast when they grumbled over a back seat in Captain America: Civil War. Baron Helmut Zemo (portrayed by Daniel Brühl) is the big bad, but what Marvel viewers will truly love to see is the return of Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp), who’s kicking ass and making her aunt’s Peggy’s spirit proud. Also, yes, “Who will be the next Cap?” will be the question on everyone’s mind, so get ready. Watch it on Disney+.
Cristin Milioti stars in this delightfully weird comedy about a sociopathic tech billionaire’s trophy wife who doubles as his human guinea pig. After ten years of being trapped in a terrible marriage, she decides to make a run for it to escape and, well, hilarity ensues. Watch it on HBO Max.
Solar Opposites is a reverse Rick and Morty. Instead of Rick and Morty visiting other planets to interact with aliens, it’s the aliens who are living on Earth in the Hulu animated series, including an adorable pupa… who will eventually destroy Earth. Putting people’s lives in danger through comical misadventures? In that sense, Solar Opposites is a lot like Rick and Morty. Both shows also share a creator, Justin Roiland. But mostly the “lives in danger” thing. Watch it on Hulu).
This season, the Sons of Anarchy spinoff is getting downer-and-dirtier with more biker drama and less family-related theatrics. That’s a good thing because warring guys-in-leather are where it’s at, and the two rival M.C.s coming no closer to peacefully coexisting, so prepare for (you knew this was coming) war. Showrunner Elgin James is officially taking the show into the post-Kurt Sutter era of the Sons Of Anarchy franchise, so let’s ride. Watch it on Hulu.
Finally, the Emilio Estevez comeback we’ve all been waiting for is here. In this reboot series, a 12-year-old boy forms a hockey team of underdogs with the help of the Ducks’ original coach, Gordon Bombay (Estevez), who has become a despondent owner of a low-level ice rink over the years. Watch it on Disney+.
6. Invincible (Amazon Prime)
AMAZON
This animated romp will please both fans of The Boys and The Walking Dead, and the latter reference has everything to do with the source material penned by Robert Kirkman. Invincible is an ultraviolent deconstruction of the superhero, and yes, we’ve seen plenty of dismantling already, but this story has heart. Stephen Yeun makes a fantastic leading man here, and the cast (J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Zazie Beetz, Zachary Quinto, Mark Hamill, and several TWD names) is ridiculously good. Watch it March 26 on Amazon.
Wanda Maximoff finally got her due, and this show manages to be everything that Marvel fans hoped for and almost nothing like what they expected. We’re now in Phase Four, baby, with magnificent cameo troll jobs throwing us off the scent of a story that delivers a rather touching medication on loss and trauma with all sorts of witchy shenanigans there to help us actually, you know enjoy the ride. Fun is the name of the game, after all, and all eyes are now pointing ahead toward The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Watch it on Disney+.
Sure, there was hesitation involved with watching HBO’s new docuseries on QAnon (“Do we really want to expose ourselves even more to the lunacy of these people?”) but once we started digging into the screeners we just couldn’t stop. It’s a fast-paced docu-mystery, one that even comes with a satisfying payoff at the end of the final episode: the unmaking of Q. Watch it on HBO Max.
Ted Lassoshouldn’t have worked. It’s a show based on a character with a funny name and a thin premise (American football coach starts coaching English soccer team), both of which first appeared during a commercial campaign. The fact that it’s good at all, let alone this good, is a minor miracle. He’s a sweet man with a lovely mustache and he just wants to help. You could do far worse in a television show. Watch it on Apple TV+.
Waffles + Mochi is a charming show about eating vegetables. It’s more than that, sure. It’s got puppets and celebrity cameos and Michelle Obama, who produced the show as part of the family’s big deal with Netflix. But what it is, mostly, if you boil it all down, is a show about getting people to eat healthier. It has no right to be as entertaining as it is. And yet, there you’ll be, won over by adorable puppets and goofy guest stars, thinking about eating a bowl of carrots instead of an entire bag of chips. Watch it on Netflix.
Godzilla vs. Kong is a movie about a giant gorilla fighting a giant lizard. It is filled with disaster movie cliches from beginning to end. At one point, during the final battle, Kong dislocates his shoulder and forces it back into the socket by jamming it in the side of a crumbling skyscraper. And as I watched it all this week, as I watched impossibly attractive scientists do impossibly improbable science things, as I watched two monstrous CGI beasts wallop each other on aircraft carriers and in the rubble of what was Hong Kong as recently as five minutes of screen time earlier, I found myself feeling… comforted? I think that’s right. It was all very comforting.
Here’s the best explanation I’ve been able to come up with for that feeling: We haven’t had a good, huge, occasionally silly blockbuster movie in well over a year. The ninth Fast & Furious was supposed to come out last summer and we’re still waiting for it. Things have been, to be very obvious about it all, weird. Watching two monsters pound on each other and destroy billions of dollars worth of property as characters spout off generic lines of dialogue was, in some way, especially for idiots like me, a return to normalcy. Would I have preferred to see it on a huge IMAX screen with 100 other rowdy goofs? Yes, of course. Did I still have a blast watching it on the 42-inch television in my bedroom with the lights out? Reader… I did. Baby steps.
Let’s do it. Let’s talk about it. Let’s discuss Godzilla vs. Kong.
Why were Godzilla and Kong fighting?
Excellent question. There are a few answers here. One has to do with a long-simmering feud and a quest for dominance, with the term “the alpha” getting tossed around by every character in the movie who has a Bachelor’s degree in science. Another has to do with an evil corporation doing evil science business in the name of profits. But the best answer to this question, I think, is because it freaking rules to see Godzilla and King Kong punch each other a lot. I mean, look at this.
WARNER BROS
And this.
WARNER BROS
If they didn’t fight, none of that would have happened. I think that’s reason enough
Be honest, you just wanted to post those GIFs.
… Maybe.
So you’ve referenced science stuff a lot. This seems like a movie that would have a Jeff Goldblum in it, one of those cool and/or quirky scientists and/or nutcases who uncovers the secrets that will save humanity. Does Godzilla vs. Kong have a Jeff Goldblum in it?
Buddy, Godzilla vs. Kong has THREE Jeff Goldblums in it. In no particular order:
— Alexander Skarsgard plays a scientist who has Hollow Earth theories that are proven correct. When we first meet him, he has a beard and a grungy sweater and is being recruited to help because he’s the best there ever was, or something close to that. The next time we see him, he has shaved and is wearing a cool guy vest and sunglasses. He is the most Goldblum-y character in the movie by far.
— Brian Tyree Henry plays a conspiracy-obsessed podcaster who has various theories about the big evil corporation that are also proven correct.
— Millie Bobbie Brown plays the daughter of some sort of government-type director played by Kyle Chandler. She is also obsessed with conspiracies and is the only one who discovers the podcaster’s secret identity even though he has been working at the evil corporation for years and podcasts using his regular voice and the evil corporation can apparently build a giant evil robotic lizard but can’t figure out one of its employees is discussing company secrets on a popular podcast.
That’s a lot of Jeff Goldblums.
And that’s before we even get to Rebecca Hall’s character, who a) is raising a young deaf girl who communicates with Kong via sign language, b) cannot, for some reason, communicate with Kong herself even though she also knows sign language was was introduced earlier in the film via a magazine cover that identified her as “the Kong Whisperer.”
WARNER BROS
First of all, I love it.
As you should.
Second of all, tell me more about this evil corporation.
Happy to. The evil corporation is called Apex and it is run by Demian Bichir, or at least a character played by him. This guy hits all the great evil CEO beats. He has a goatee and a general vibe that is kind of like “if Logan Roy from Succession were younger and about 50 percent more of a sociopath.” He shows up to recruit Skarsgard wearing an overcoat draped over his shoulders without his arms through the armholes, like a Yakuza boss. He’s always drinking from a glass filled with brown liquor and preparing to give a speech about The Way Things Really Are, even when Kong and Godzilla are leveling Hong Kong.
WARNER BROS
He’s perfect. I love him.
This movie sounds like it rules.
It does.
So you said there’s some questionable science in here. What kind of questionable science are we talking about?
You mean besides the thing where a giant gorilla and a giant lizard were apparently created inside the planet’s hollow core and this hollow core contains some sort of hyper-powerful energy source that the giant gorilla can use to charge up a huge ax until it glows a pulsing neon blue and can be used to deflect the pulsing neon blue laser breath that the giant lizard shoots out of its mouth?
Uh, yes?
Well, there’s also a lot of talk about a “gravitational inversion” that happens when one attempts to travel to the Hollow Earth, wherein the entire planet’s gravity flips and crushes anything caught inside it. This is what killed Alexander Skarsgard’s brother, which is mentioned like one time and then discarded, and is all brushed away very quickly here by two revelations: One, Apex has created a spaceship-type thing that negates all of this through methods best described as “hey, don’t worry about it, guy”; two, it does not affect Kong, for similar reasons.
I respect this. There’s no time to get into the scientific weeds when we have monsters to pit against each other.
Exactly. Especially since, once we get to the Hollow Earth, before Kong gets the magical ax, he is attacked by huge winged beasts, one of which he knocks out of the sky with the other one like he’s freaking Albert Pujols, complete with a triumphant bat flip…
WARNER BROS
… and another of which he decapitates with his bare hands before slurping its green brain goo right out of its head.
WARNER BROS
Gross.
Yeah, it was very unnecessary but I still laughed out loud in the empty room when I saw it.
Let me see if I have this straight so far: Godzilla and Kong are fighting each other, but there might be a nefarious capitalism reason behind it, and a slew of scientists and small children are trying to help Kong in the fight, and Kong has a magical ax, and Paper Boi from Atlanta and Eleven from Stranger Things are involved in some podcast-related way, and Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights is involved somehow?
Basically, yes. And this brings us to the Mechagodzilla.
WARNER BROS
Excuse me?
Here’s the short version, via bullet point:
Godzilla had been peaceful, but attacked the Pensacola headquarters of Apex, because of course Florida would be involved somehow
It turns out that Apex has been building a huge robot Godzilla to give humans a leg-up over the other monsters
The robotic Godzilla has been making the real Godzilla mad, which is why he’s been attacking humans
Kong has been fighting Godzilla to protect humans
The evil corporate guy sent his daughter to the Hollow Earth to extract some of the pulsing blue energy so they could inject it into the Mechagodzilla and make it more powerful
But when they did, it became sentient and killed the evil corporate guy mid-speech and started running amok in Hong Kong, which really got the short end of the stick in all of this, as far as destruction goes
Long story short: Godzilla and Kong have to become friends and team up to beat the robot.
YES.
My thoughts exactly.
Is this where Kong bashes his shoulder back into socket against the skyscraper?
Oh, you know it is.
WARNER BROS
And so these two beasts who spent the whole movie trying to tear each other apart work together to save the world in the last 15 or so minutes and then everyone just lives happily ever after?
I mean, yeah, kind of, except for the millions of people in Hong Kong who died or had their property turned into rubble by three hundred-foot-tall monsters, one of whom was a sentient robot powered by a mythical energy source from the center of the Earth.
Oh, right.
Yeah. It would be fun if the sequel to this movie were just a two-hour Erin Brockovich-style courtroom drama about various class action lawsuits against Apex. Not a single monster in the whole thing.
You were right. I really missed having this kind of movie in my life. It’s so much fun to be sitting around just goofing about it all.
And it was a lot of fun to watch! It’s nice to just turn off your brain sometimes and fill your eyes with cookie-cutter Hollywood destruction. This movie checked all of those boxes. It was delightful.
Hey, wait. One last thing before you go.
Shoot.
This really feels like the kind of movie that would have Lance Reddick in it, maybe as some sort of high-ranking politician or military leader. You haven’t mentioned him yet, though. Am I going crazy or is Lance Reddick in this movie?
WARNER BROS
I knew it!
Godzilla vs. Kong did not disappoint in any substantial way. We all needed this.
Over the past few days, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been drawing attention to the Mexico border, where she’s concerned about the “dehumanizing” conditions that the Biden Administration is still struggling to improve after four years of Donald Trump. As always, her criticisms are bipartisan, but she has been drawing attention to Republicans like Ted Cruz who are suddenly concerned about what’s happening at the border and attempting to frame the situation as an “invasion.” Via Business Insider:
“Anyone who’s using the word ‘surge’ around you, consciously, is trying to invoke a militaristic frame. And that’s a problem. Because this is not a surge, these are children,” she said. “And they are not insurgents. And we are not being invaded, which, by the way, is a white supremacist idea, philosophy, the idea that if an ‘other’ is coming in the population, that this is an invasion of who we are.”
After AOC promoted her quote from the Business Insider article in a Twitter thread about her thoughts on how to best handle incoming immigrants humanely, Cruz pounced on the thread and accused the congresswoman of attempting to abolish ICE and leave the border completely open.
“@AOC explains the real Dem position: abolish ICE,” Cruz tweeted. “Full open borders. Which would make the #BidenBorderCrisis even worse. She says nothing else works. Really? Last year, we had the lowest illegal immigration IN 45 YEARS. This year, we have the highest in 20 years.”
.@AOC explains the real Dem position: abolish ICE.
Of course, Cruz should know by now that messing with AOC never ends well for him. She quickly responded to his tweet and reminded the Texas senator how he handled the last “crisis” in his home state by booking a trip to Cancun.
“Ted, this is pretty rich coming from someone who fled their own home (and responsibilities) during an environmental crisis to cross the border and seek refuge in Mexico,” AOC tweeted. “Also you funded cages, expanded cages, and yet you’re complaining about cages. You have no policy, just puff. Maybe Mexico shouldn’t let YOU in the next time you try to run away from your job to sip umbrella drinks in Cancún.”
Maybe Mexico shouldn’t let YOU in the next time you try to run away from your job to sip umbrella drinks in Cancún.
Maybe one day Cruz we’ll learn his lesson about taking shots at AOC, but for now, we’re pretty sure he’s a glutton for punishment because he keeps coming back for more.
On Wednesday night, the Knicks and Timberwolves game came down to the final shot. With the Wolves up one, the Knicks had an opportunity for the win in the closing moments of the game. New York couldn’t find a good shot, however, as RJ Barrett was forced to take a fading jumper that came up well short of the basket.
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 1, 2021
It wasn’t a great look for the Knicks, and after the game, Wolves rookie Anthony Edwards didn’t try to hide what Minnesota’s strategy was defensively for that final possession: Make RJ Barrett take the last shot.
“We told Jaden, try not to let Randle catch the ball we want to make someone else beat it. Gladly, RJ Barrett caught it and if he would have made the shot we would have lived with it because that’s who we want taking the shot. We don’t want anybody else taking it.”
Edwards’ brutal honesty is one of his most endearing qualities in terms of his interactions with the media, and this is a spectacular example of that. Coaches and players absolutely think this in end-of-game situations. They even say these things in the huddles before plays in such situations, but rarely do they offer those thoughts publicly to the media after. Edwards says the quiet part out loud here, as most would simply say, “We just didn’t want them to get the ball to Randle and to make anyone else take a tough shot.” He, instead, chose a bit of violence by making sure everyone knew the gameplan was to funnel the ball specifically to Barrett, because they believed that was their best chance to preserve the win by making him take the last shot.
This might not be an approach that makes Edwards a ton of friends around the league, as he’s not exactly diplomatic, but it’s also what makes him, well, him. His lack of a filter makes his media appearances absolute gold, and while it might ruffle some feathers at times, he’s certainly never boring even when talking about situations that don’t often produce any spice.
When your brand is literally called MSCHF, it shouldn’t be a shocker that there’s a good dose of actual mischief embedded in the ethos. That’s exactly what the label behind Lil Nas X’s wildly viral Satan shoes promises to deliver with each of its bi-monthly drops. Note we didn’t say “bi-monthly sneaker drops” — because while the most famous MSCHF products are shoes, they’ve also launched tongue-in-cheek bath bombs, internet browser add-ons, AI-generated feet photos, and rubber chicken bongs, along with various other weird shit and ephemera.
The Satan shoes aren’t the brand’s first brush with viral fame, either. Launched in 2016 and based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (obvi), MSCHF is the same brand that brought you this year’s Birkinstocks — Birkenstock sandals made using the leather from real Birkin bags and those dope as hell all-white Nike Aix Max 97s filled with 60CCs of Holy Water sourced from the River Jordan back in 2019. So while it might feel like they’ve come out of nowhere, stunt marketing like this is very much their #brand.
Everything out of MSCHF comes wrapped in layers of nihilistic irony that attempts to reflect the absurdity of a world where people get hyped over things like Supreme stamped bricks and shrug off stuff like an attempted coup from a game-show-host-turned-President as just another Wednesday in the waning days of the American Empire. But by adopting the uber-capitalistic “bi-weekly drop” cadence of a modern streetwear company, MSCHF is very much part of the world they’re skewering. (The line between viral marketing and literal trolling gets very tough to see when you look at things like MSCHF’s ClickSwipe app, which swipes right on Tinder for you every time you click something with your mouse).
“Our perspective is everything is funny in a nihilistic sort of way,” MSCHF CEO Gabriel Whaley told Business Insider in an interview. “We’re not here to make the world a better place. We’re making light of how much everything sucks.”
If you take those words at face value, MSCHF feels a lot of the old Supreme — which gained legitimate clout via viral product drops. When the Supreme brick happened it was product-as-commentary, a release that reflected the absurdity of the hype machine surrounding the counterculture skatewear brand itself. The fact that people actually paid for it is what made the brick such an iconically dark moment in streetwear history.
These days, Supreme plays its relatively safe, favoring official collaborations over everything, though they’ll still drop a random accessory here and there. The gap in the “is this a real commentary on commerce or just commerce in disguise as commentary?” space that Supreme left behind has since been filled by MSCHF. And the relationship is a weirdly reciprocal one — with MSCHF’s ironic products hitting harder because we saw how well that model actually served Supreme.
Now bring all that context to bear on the Satan shoes — which a judge has just ordered the brand to stop selling. Note, that this isn’t an official collab. MSCHF calls them “art pieces” and that’s correct, though Nike is arguing that the general public isn’t sophisticated enough to know that this devil-themed footwear wasn’t actually made by Swoosh & Co., which also seems to be true. While sneaker customization isn’t illegal, when you’re selling 666 customized sneakers with blood in the air bubble and freaking out square Christian parents across the country, the brand whose shoe you’re using has every right to ask you to chill.
MSCHF will surely cease and desist and their next drop will be all the more anticipated because of this episode. Nike lawyers could squash them, but why would they? Their brand got a little badass-rebel energy from this dance and their PR machine will fight to correct misperceptions among their core suburban fanbase. Round and round we go.
What you think of MSCHF’s actual products depends on your life stage and whether its model feels fresh or tired to you. Do you think blood in a shoe is bold? What about a bath bomb shaped like a toaster? Or an Instagram account that proudly proclaims “DO NOT FOLLOW US“? If that sounds corny or if you’re past it because it feels like a retread of Supreme, feel free to look away.
For the rest of us, MSCHF is infusing the world of streetwear and accessory drops with some conversation-starting fun, re-capturing the counter-culture energy of an industry that has become commercialized to the point of banality. Whether it’s capitalism masquerading as rebellion or rebellion masquerading as capitalism is impossible to say. But maybe that, too, is part of the point.
If you want to sign up for early access to MSCHF products click here.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
(@LilNasX) 